Angry Birds Game Coming to Alibaba’s Mobile Apps

As the Chinese e-commerce giant expands its services beyond online shopping, Alibaba is offering more games through its mobile apps.

On Thursday, Rovio’s new game called Angry Birds Stella became available on three Alibaba apps — the Mobile Taobao online shopping app, the Laiwang messaging app and the Alipay Wallet mobile payment app.

Finland-based Rovio is struggling to come up with new hits after its Angry Birds franchise took the world by storm several years ago. But for Alibaba, whose mobile game distribution business is small but quickly developing, having a well-known title like Angry Birds is a big step forward.

Alibaba will make the new Angry Birds game available across all of its major mobile platforms – not just the apps directly run by Alibaba, but those run by other companies in which Alibaba has invested, such as Sina’s Weibo microblog unit and online video firm Youku Tudou.

Mobile-browser maker UCWeb, Alibaba’s wholly owned unit that runs one of major mobile game platforms in China, will also distribute Angry Birds Stella, Alibaba said on its website Thursday.

Alibaba is expected to kick off its initial public offering in the U.S. as early as next week, which bankers say could raise more than $20 billion.